Ruling BRS MLC in Telangana K Kavitha on Tuesday displayed her old phones before appearing for ED questioning in New Delhi, even as she took strong exception to the agency reportedly stating she had destroyed certain other handsets. Before entering the ED office, she showed her old phones to the media persons. She appeared before the Enforcement Directorate officials in the national capital for questioning for the second day in a row.
Seperately, in a letter addressed to an ED official, she said she was submitting all the earlier phones which she may have used in the past and as sought by him, "despite the actions of the agency being ex-facie malafide".
These phones are submitted without prejudice to her right and contentions and larger contention whether a woman's phone can be intruded, in the teeth of her right to privacy, she said.
"I may take this opportunity to point out glaring act of malice on part of (the) agency when it has chosen to make insinuations against me in the prosecution complaint filed qua some other accused in November 2022, alleging that certain phones stand destroyed," she said.
It was 'baffling' to note as to how, why, and under what circumstances the agency made such allegation, "when I was not even summoned or asked any questions whatsoever," she said.
Kavitha, daughter of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, sought to put it on record that the first time she was called by the agency was in the month of March 2023.
Therefore, she has reasons to believe, that accusation against her in November 2022 were not only malafide, misconceived, but also prejudicial, she said.
The "deliberate leakage of the false accusation" to the public has led to a political slugfest, wherein her political adversaries have been flaunting the accusations, to accuse her of destroying the so-called evidence and causing great harm to her reputation and attempting to defame her and her political party, she said.
"It is unfortunate that a premier agency like the Enforcement Directorate is becoming privy and party to these acts and sabotaging and sacrificing its sacrosanct duty of free and fair investigation at the altar of vested political interest," she said.
She was, therefore, tendering all those phones so as to dispel any notion or adverse impression that the agency was trying to create, she stated.
Kavitha appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Tuesday for questioning in the Delhi excise policy linked money laundering case.
This is her third deposition before the federal probe agency. She had earlier appeared at the ED headquarters in New Delhi on March 11 and March 20.
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